We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful John Nixon. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with John below.
John, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.
Probably my junior year in high school, I was introduced to a few music albums that really caught my ear in their attention to detail both musically and sonically. One was “Lexicon Of Love” by ABC, and the other was Toto IV. This drew me into reading the backs of albums to see who was making these records from behind the scenes.
I kept seeing “Produced by…” and I knew I needed to know more about what a music producer actually does, and my research led me to following an education in music at the Berklee College Of Music in Boston.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I knew I wanted to be a music producer, but there is no clear cut way to put that into action. Usually, it is more about networking and taking advantage when a shot is give you, than it is about your education or degree. So, after leaving Berklee College Of Music, I returned home to Detroit without a real plan. I took a job at a production facility for radio and TV commercials because it was the closest thing to a production job I could find.
After a few months, I was approached by a co-worker there (who also had a short stint at Berklee), and he was beginning to get into the custom music composition business. His business was growing fast enough that he was considering going out on his own and wanted me to join him. I knew nothing about composing for TV commercials, but I did know how to produce good music. He said he could teach me the rest…and indeed he did. As time went by, I became the primary writer in the company and established myself as a go to composer in the industry. A variety of life changes for both of us followed and I eventually was out doing it on my own.
Composing for a client is a difficult needle to thread. Writing artistically within very tight time demands and extremely specific parameters makes this job more like solving puzzle than working creatively. It is tricky to write what you believe is the correct feel for a commercial, all the while convincing a client you have given them what they asked for. And often, your approval process runs through the gauntlet of several layers, who all want to add their imprint on it. Success usually depends on asking the right probing questions ahead of time and digging into what emotions need to be triggered. Talking music is more about talking mood, energy, feel, and many other non-musical terms. Asking and listening can often outweigh the need for extreme musicianship.
To keep my mind fresh, I needed something I could do musically that would be a balance to the pressured life of advertising.
That was when I founded 7and5, which is my electronic new age artist moniker. This was music I could make on my own, at my leisure, without stress, and in my own time. I distributed this music myself, and did promo the old fashioned way…by sending out CDs to radio stations, magazines, websites, etc. Any place that was connected to this genre. This included The Weather Channel, who at the time would play this style of music on their local weather breaks. Many people discovered my music this way, and there was quite a sub-culture of music appreciation for Weather Channel selections. From there, popularity slowly snowballed to where I am today with upwards of 100,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, and even bigger numbers on Pandora.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
This is a story about a pivot by another composition company that served as a guiding lesson for me my entire career.
The client was producing a TV commercial primarily made of footage of race cars speeding around a track, including many quick edits and visual effects all about speed. They requested music that included that same sense of speed and intensity…whether it be speed-metal, electronica, industrial music, etc. They wanted fast, loud and intense.
While all the staff composers were set out to compose in such styles, the owner of the company did his own alternate approach that was a gentle arrangement of the Blue Danube Waltz. A complete pivot from the request…that he was ONLY able to do because he FIRST pursued the client’s request with his other staff composers. They ultimately love the juxtaposition of his delicate arrangement against the intense race scenes and chose that direction. But had he not FIRST covered their requests, the client would have never made this selection because they would still have that “what if” in the back of their minds since they never would have gotten to see their vision implemented as a comparative.
The lesson is two-fold. It shows that a good composer must offer ideas that aren’t explicitly asked for, and that you must serve your client’s needs and requests first; otherwise they don’t feel like the have been heard or respected in the process.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
My goal is to not only prosper financially, but to remain steadfast in my integrity as a musician. There are simply times you must walk away from a job that is asking you to move out of your comfort zone as an artist or just tests your integrity. Saying “yes” to every thing dangled in front of you ultimately diminishes what you do. Musicians are often guilty of chasing every dollar because there is so much abuse in the music industry. Remain true to a long range vision over “grabbing whatever you can this week” is something I have learned to keep in mind. Not always easy, but working your creative side into the ground without the proper compensation only burns you out so that in the moment you receive a good opportunity, you are working from a place of mental (or even physical) fatigue.
Contact Info:
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/7and5/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/codanix/
- Twitter: @7and5
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@7and5Music